Senior talent for financial markets.
We place the executives who run banks, trading floors, asset managers, private capital firms, family offices and holding companies. Every mandate is led personally by a Partner and backed by Paul Mandel Intelligence, our live read on compensation, mobility and team performance across the market we cover.
Paul Mandel Partners is a Partner-led search firm built exclusively for financial institutions, family offices and holding companies. In this market, compensation is complex, the regulatory perimeter keeps shifting, and a desk's real value rarely shows up on an organisation chart. That's why every mandate is run personally by a Partner, backed by an in-house research team trained on our own Best Practice methodology — and why the process stays visible to the client at every stage, not just the shortlist.
That same proximity to the market feeds Paul Mandel Intelligence — so no mandate starts from a blank page.
Two ways to engage senior financial-services talent.
Run by the same Partners, backed by the same intelligence.
Executive Search
Retained search focused on senior and executive-level appointments — Executive Director, Director, Managing Director, Head of Desk or Business, and Board / Non-Executive roles.
Learn more →Business Intelligence
Continuous visibility on compensation, talent movement and team performance across the institutions we cover.
Learn more →Executive Search
Retained search for the leaders who run financial markets.
We recruit at the top of the organisation only: Executive Director, Director, Managing Director, Head of Desk, Head of Business, and Board or Non-Executive appointments, across banking, markets, asset management, wealth management and private capital.
Our Partners' own backgrounds — on trading desks, in coverage teams, on executive committees — mean a mandate is scoped around the seat's real economics and politics. And it means candidates are approached by someone who has actually worked in their world.
Every retained search is confidential by default. We don't publish client names, open mandates, or case studies.
Partner-led — personally involved in every mandate, from scoping to close.
Research-backed — an in-house team trained on our own Best Practice methodology.
Practitioners, not generalists — markets professionals and specialist search veterans.
Retained, not contingency — confidential engagements, no broadcasting of mandates.
Data-informed — Paul Mandel Intelligence gives every search a live map of the market.
Three stages. One Partner, throughout.
Mandate & market mapping
We start by understanding the seat as the business sees it: the desk's economics, the reporting line, what success actually looks like in year one. From there we map the realistic universe of candidates, drawing on Paul Mandel Intelligence and our own network.
Confidential approach & assessment
Every approach is made personally, by a Partner, and in confidence. Candidates are assessed not only on track record but on fit with the client culture and the mandate's real objective — informed by our Partners' own experience, whether inside these markets, in senior executive roles, or built over decades of specialist search.
Structured offer & integration
We stay involved through offer structuring, counter-offer management and the candidate's first months in the seat — and, for clients who want it, well beyond: a structured, multi-year engagement built around ongoing success, not just the signature. In our view, a search isn't finished at acceptance; it's finished when the leader succeeds.
Business Intelligence
Paul Mandel Intelligence — a live read on the talent mapping, not just a search.
Every mandate we run is also a data point: who was approached, who moved, what it took to win them, how their current team is structured. Over two decades, that adds up to a continuously updated view of the market — built not by scraping public data, but through the same conversations and relationships that make our search practice work.
We share that intelligence directly with clients, shaped around the question they're actually asking: how a desk's pay compares, who's realistically approachable, how a team they're about to build stacks up against the market. It isn't a published report on a schedule — it's a working capability, shared selectively and confidentially.
Compensation — how total compensation is structured for a given role, desk or seniority level, and how it compares across institutions.
Moves — who is moving between institutions, in which direction, and what that signals about a desk or a market.
Team structure — how competitor teams and desks are organised, from reporting lines to headcount.
Performance — how specific profiles and teams are actually performing in the market, beyond what a CV shows.
Strategic Analysis — reading how a sector or peer group is evolving, not just tracking individual moves.
Organisation mappings — a structured view of how a competitor's teams and functions are organised, reporting line by reporting line.
Talent pool & community management — maintaining a live, curated network of relevant profiles ahead of a client's next hiring need.
C-level tailored assessments — bespoke evaluation of senior candidates against a mandate's specific requirements.
We also continually invest in AI-driven research tools to sharpen this intelligence — technology that strengthens a Partner's judgment, never replaces it.
Request a market briefingFinancial institutions, in the broadest sense.
From the trading floor to private capital. We work exclusively with financial institutions and the investors who back them — four areas of focus, one team.
Investment Banking & Capital Markets
Origination, M&A, ECM and DCM franchises at global and regional banks — from coverage bankers to division heads. We recruit for institutions building a capital markets platform from scratch as often as for established banks replacing a departing leader, and we understand the difference between the two mandates: one is about credibility and network, the other about protecting a franchise mid-flight.
Global Markets — Sales & Trading
Sales, trading, structuring and research across every asset class — rates, credit, equities, FX and commodities — and every client type, from institutional flow to private client execution. This is where several of our Partners built their own trading and sales careers, and where the rest of the team has spent years placing the people who did — which means we can read a trader's book or a salesperson's franchise the way a desk head would.
Asset Management & Hedge Funds
Portfolio management, distribution and leadership roles at traditional asset managers and hedge funds, including quantitative and systematic strategies.
Private Equity, Private Debt & Family Office
Investment and operating roles across private equity, private debt, special situations, secondaries and real estate — for funds, family offices, holding companies and the institutions that invest alongside them. Mandates span both sides of the table: the investment professionals who source and execute deals, and the operating, distribution and investor-relations leadership that supports them once capital is raised and deployed.
Two founding Partners.
Decades inside the institutions we now recruit for.
Alexandre Mandel
For the past 20 years, Alexandre has recruited front-office professionals — sales, traders, quants and structurers — for financial institutions across Switzerland, Europe, the UK and the Middle East. He has built one of the most extensive networks of senior markets talent in the region, working with banks, hedge funds, asset managers, brokers, large international corporates and family offices.
alexandre.mandel@paulmandel.com
James Wood
James has spent the past 16 years building Paul Mandel Partners' search practice across the Americas, covering Fixed Income, Cash Equity, Equity Derivatives and Futures, FX & Options for clients across the United States and Canada. He began his career trading S&P 500 futures in London and holds a Master's in Banking, Corporate, Finance and Securities Law from the University of Leeds.
james.wood@paulmandel.comBuilt on decades inside financial institutions.
Our Partners have sat on trading desks, held executive committee seats in banking and technology, and built specialist search practices spanning decades in these markets. Every mandate draws on that direct experience — not a generic brief.
Two decades in the market
Founded in 2004, Paul Mandel Partners has spent two decades building relationships across trading floors, banks and investment firms worldwide. What began as a markets-focused practice has grown to cover banking, asset management, wealth management and private capital — without ever drifting from one founding principle: a search should be run by someone who genuinely understands the seat.
Why we've stayed small
A platform can offer more consultants and more offices. What it can't offer is a Partner personally involved in your mandate, from the first conversation to the candidate's first months in the seat. Depth over breadth is the trade-off our clients tell us they came for — and the one we intend to keep making as the firm grows.
Discretion, as a discipline
Search is, by definition, a discreet exercise — for the client filling a seat quietly, and for the candidate exploring one. We treat discretion as an operating principle, not a courtesy: client names, open mandates and case studies are never published, and every engagement is confidential by default.
Global footprint
Headquartered in Geneva, with an office in London. Our Partners and network extend coverage across Paris, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia — mandates are global, wherever the talent sits.
Five things that don't change from one mandate to the next.
Partner-led, start to finish — every mandate, from the first conversation to the candidate's first months in the seat.
Financial institutions, exclusively.
Built by practitioners — traders, executives and search veterans, not a team of generalist recruiters.
Transparent process — clients see how a search is progressing at every stage, not only its outcome.
Discretion as a discipline — client names, mandates and case studies are never published.
Discuss a mandate, confidentially.
- General enquiries
- general@paulmandel.com
- Geneva — Headquarters
- Place de Saint Gervais 1
1201 Geneva, Switzerland
- Alexandre Mandel
- alexandre.mandel@paulmandel.com
- James Wood
- james.wood@paulmandel.com